Some people say it's sad that this will be lost on today's society. Personally I would say if Beethoven remains on the radar in the future there is always the potential for this small morsel to be also understood and appreciated. That said, the trouble is that very soon Beethoven will not have so much appeal to a new generation of composers and music afficionados because the parameters his music has will most likely not thrill or allure them enough. Modulation, development, thematic unity...as clever and artistic as all that once was....will be lost on a generation who naturally want to explore the multi-media possibilities of 'music' now. Visuals, sonic mutations, technological ingenuity and the limitless possibilities of sound sources....that's the future. Is it sad? Or would it be not be even more sad to hold people back to hang about studying the centuries-old craft of composition when they can explore a new musical world. If you and I think it sad that the numbers who can appreciate this are dwindling, consider for a moment what Beethoven and his contemporaries would've thought of Dudley Moore and his distillation of tropes from the Classical period! They would've been appalled. Particularly his merciless repetition of tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant at the end. 😆 Don't get me wrong, I spend most of my time watching, listening to and reading things from the 20th century because it suits me better than anything in the last 25 years. So I feel sad about things disappearing when they were so much better. On the other hand I do realise that both Dudley, his colleagues, his audiences and a generation of comedy did very very VERY well out of this item! Well enough for it not to be sad, really.
I had forgotten how totally brilliantt this is. Actually saw him on TV at the time. We laughed like mad at the Beethoven unable to finish coda😂 Surprising teally that he chose comedy when he had such talent as a pianist.
What brilliance! What a genius!! I don't think we realised what a prodigious talent he was when he was amongst us - it's only now, looking back, that we see it more clearly. No one even close to his level these days. Everything he did, he did without notes, without practise - just straight from hi head to the performance. Like mozart. We won't see his equal again
As a kid I was in love with this man, his comedy, timing, his cunning abilities; Now, 2023, and it still makes me laugh out loud, which is not a given no matter how good a piece of comedy is, not being able to control yourself, when you watch something alone, research shows we are much more timid in our responses yet here I am crying with laughter for this ridiculously beautiful composition and performance by this brilliant man. When I learned form his death and the cruel lead-up to it, he was one of few I personally mourned, that close to my heart this man had made it. And that is a small group, with only a few who reached that threshold; thank you Dudley Moore for being so generous with your gift!!
i have found eight different postings of this composition (on youtube) from different venues and different periods of his life. if you time each performance individually, you will find that they are all within TWO SECONDS of each other. an often overlooked aspect of genius is consistency.
